Founders & core team
From tactile research to useful robotic touch.
TacTip connects optoelectronic tactile sensing, robot learning and product engineering. Our team brings the research direction, software infrastructure and delivery capabilities needed to turn contact information into robotic applications.
Founder
Boang Guan
Founder · Technology strategy & product development
Sensor systems · Calibration · Touch to Token · Robot tasks
Boang is a doctoral researcher in tactile robotics at the University of Bristol. His work connects optoelectronic tactile sensing, dexterous manipulation, XR teleoperation and robot learning.
He holds an MSc in Robotics with Distinction from Bristol and an undergraduate degree in Internet of Things Engineering from Central South University. As first author of TacPulse, he has investigated how soft tactile sensors can recover pulse waveforms from small skin deformations. At TacTip, he leads the technology and product roadmap, core R&D and team development.
Research & academic collaboration
Research direction with an engineering path.
Our expert team supports research direction, technical review and open platforms, connecting tactile sensing with reproducible tools and real robot experiments.
01
Prof. Nathan F. Lepora
Technical advisor & research lead
Professor of Robotics & AI at the University of Bristol and leader of the Dexterous Robotics Group at Bristol Robotics Laboratory. His work spans biomimetic tactile sensing, computational neuroscience and robot learning. At TacTip, he supports the long-term research roadmap, technical review and international academic collaboration.
Biomimetic touch · Dexterous manipulation · Research quality
Academic profile
02
Dr. Yijiong Lin
Open tactile platforms & academic collaboration
Assistant Professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, with a PhD in Engineering Mathematics from the University of Bristol. His work covers tactile simulation, robot learning, sim-to-real transfer and dexterous manipulation, including Tactile Gym 2.0 and Bi-Touch. At TacTip, he connects open tools, evaluation benchmarks and real robot validation.
Tactile simulation · Sim-to-real · Open platforms
Research group profileCore team
The capabilities behind every product.
Clear responsibilities connect software, physical products, manufacturing, market development and robotic application validation.
01
Yulong Tong
Platform & systems engineering
A Computer Science graduate of Central South University with four years of engineering experience in TikTok commercial backend systems. He develops Device SDKs, calibration and data infrastructure, model runtime, version management and device observability.
SDK · Data infrastructure · Reliable systems
02
Linyue Zhang
Product & experience engineering
Trained in Industrial Design at Tianjin University and Aerial Robotics at Bristol. Her experience spans consumer hardware research, product definition and robotic structures. At TacTip, she defines physical product requirements, integration interfaces, prototypes and evaluation plans.
Product definition · Mechanical integration · Experience
03
Hanze Li
Manufacturing & supply chain
With an MSc in Robotics from Bristol and an undergraduate background in Artificial Intelligence at Sussex, he combines tactile experiments and data analysis with practical manufacturing planning. He leads production introduction, processes, tooling, suppliers, quality testing and batch traceability.
Process engineering · Quality · Traceable delivery
04
Shuojing Zhu
Market operations, channels & sales
An Internet of Things Engineering graduate of Central South University with platform commercialisation, channel growth and startup experience. She connects customer scenarios and purchasing needs with product decisions, pilot adoption and market development.
Customer insight · Channels · Pilot adoption
05
Dr. Xingchen Xu
Technical Expert
A member of TacTip's core team, contributing technical expertise to the team's work.
Core team · Technical expertise
06
Dr. Xiaoqing Guo
Technical Expert
A member of TacTip's core team, contributing technical expertise to the team's work.
Core team · Technical expertise
How we work
One path from contact to application.
Customer tasks inform product interfaces. Calibration and software make measurements comparable. Robot experiments test their usefulness, while manufacturing and customer feedback guide the next iteration.